Board of Trustees – Notice to Community

The Board of Trustees have received two resignations since the start of the year. We want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Karla Paul and Belinda (Bee) Nichols for their contributions to the board.

Karla Paul was Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery’s first ever Whanau Group Trustee. She was co-opted onto the board mid-way through 2016. During her tenure on the board, Karla showed her boundless energy and enthusiasm by putting her time into two sub committees as well as attending the Whanau Group huis and Board meetings. We thank her for her time and energy and wish her well with her new commitments this year. The Whanau Group will put forward a candidate to fill this co-opted position and we will let you know who this is as soon as we have the information.

Bee Nichols has also stepped down from the Board. Bee has served on the Board for a long time and after seven years of dedicated trusteeship, she has decided to move on. Bee was Chair of the Board from April 2014 to May 2016. She has been actively involved in the governance of our school since before our merger in 2014, being a parent trustee at Discovery 1, on the appointed Board for the merged school and as both chair and as parent trustee of the Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery board. She has been instrumental in so many aspects of the school that are coming to fruition. The property design in particular is something that has years of Bee’s hard work and input underpinning it; the design reflects much of the consultation and discussion that has happened over the years, before this current board took tenure, which has enabled the plans to come together far more quickly than they otherwise would have. Congratulations and thank you to Bee for all her hard work and patience through some of the hardest years the school has seen. Bee’s perseverance and passion has paid off and the school is going from strength to strength on the back of all the hours she (and the past boards) have put in.

We wish both Karla and Bee every success with their future endeavours.

With Bee’s resignation the Board has two options open to it to fill the vacancy – either to hold a by-election OR to select someone (for further details on the process please go to http://www.trustee-election.co.nz/board-resources/casual-vacancies#). We would prefer to select someone for two reasons; to avoid the additional expense of a by-election, and to ensure we get the specific skills we need. Amongst other things, Bee brought a wealth of historic Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery specific board knowledge to the table which has been a real asset to this Board and we are interested in selecting someone to fill the vacancy who also has this historic knowledge.

In order to select a candidate we are required to have a notification period which allows any member of our school community, who feels that having a by-election would be a better way of filling the vacant position, to come forward and request this. If you feel a by-election is a better course of action for the board, please put your request in writing to the Chair and either drop it in to the Office or email it to bot.secretary@aotawhiti.school.nz by 28 March 2017.